What Apple’s New Podcasts App Means For Listeners—And for Apple

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Without warning or fanfare, Apple introduced a new Podcasts app this week that gives users of iPhones, iPads, and iPods a much simpler way to find and listen to downloadable audio shows. Pundits had been expecting the move as part of the introduction this fall of iOS 6, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. But for whatever reason, Apple decided to jump the gun.

Podcasts were already available on Apple devices through the Music app as well as numerous third-party apps, so the shift may seem like a small one. But I think the change will turn out to be an important turning point for podcast listeners, podcast creators, and Apple itself, so it’s worth examining the new app in some detail.

What It Means for Listeners

Personally, I’m pretty thrilled about the new app. In fact, I’ve given it a place in my iPhone’s dock, displacing the older Music app. Here’s why. Back in 2010 I decided to take up running, and I’m currently training for the San Francisco Marathon, coming up on July 29. That means I started spending at least six to seven hours on the road every week. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those Zen athletes for whom the act of running is like meditation. If I didn’t have my iPhone strapped to my arm, sending my favorite NPR shows and other podcasts into my earbuds, I’d go out of my gourd with boredom. (You can see my usual podcast playlist in the table here.)

The big hitch in my running routine was that the Music app on the iPhone sucks at podcast management. For the life of me, I could never figure out how to subscribe to a podcast directly from this app. As far as I can tell, it isn’t possible. The desktop version of iTunes allows you to subscribe to podcasts, meaning that the latest episodes get downloaded automatically, but that didn’t help me because I almost never sync my iPhone with my laptop.

The upshot was that before every run, I’d have to spend 15 minutes or more tracking down the latest episodes of my favorite podcasts in the iTunes Store and downloading them manually. It was a total drag, made worse in the last few months by inexplicable slowdowns in the store’s responsiveness. Rendering a simple list of podcast episodes was taking minutes on end. (I posted to Apple’s help forums about the issue but never found a satisfactory explanation. Perhaps the company was fiddling with its distribution system in preparation for the introduction of the new app.)

The new Podcasts app fixes most of that. From the app, you can now quickly search Apple’s catalog of podcasts and subscribe to the ones you like. Once you’re subscribed, there’s a settings page for each podcast that lets you specify whether new episodes should be downloaded to your device automatically, how many episodes should be saved, and so forth. In essence, the new app gives you the same level of control over podcasts on your iPhone that you previously had on your desktop via iTunes.

The app is also pretty fun to use. While it’s yet another example of Apple’s strange new obsession with skeuomorphism, it’s done in a clever way—as you listen to a podcast there’s a spinning reel-to-reel tape machine in the background, with the tape on the left reel gradually winding down as it’s taken up by the right reel. There’s also a cool little toggle for making a podcast play slower or faster.

Critics such as TJ Draper at BuzzingPixel point out that with the new Podcasts app, Apple hasn’t really reduced the confusion for people who manage podcasts across multiple devices. If you subscribe to a podcast from iTunes on the desktop, for example, it doesn’t mean that you’re automatically subscribed on your iPhone; you have to set up subscriptions on each device separately. Also, the seamless syncing of playback between devices that Apple promised in the feature list for Podcasts app doesn’t seem to be working yet. But these problems will only affect people who … Next Page »

I wish Android could find a simple solution. Google listen is quite confusing.

Scott

Derek, if you haven’t tried Stitcher, give it a shot. It’s a great app that works across multiple platforms.

Mlowenstein

Hey Wayne- Great column. I use podcasts the exact same way. Since I don’t have much of a commute, I use long runs as a way to catch up on content such as i NPR shows, TED, and other content. Two major improvements with the podcast app is that there is information more readily available on the content of a particular podcast. This was a feature that had disappeared in the iTunes version of iOS 5. Also, some podcasts have a feature that displays what content comes at a particular time in the podcast, which is useful for shows with multiple segments. On the content side I have one request: when is Charlie Rose going to be available in podcast form? – Mark Lowenstein

Cib

I tried this new app for a week. Big disappointment. the interface is horrendously ugly. And the lack of sync across devices kills it totally. Impossible to just listen to selected episodes in a row while cycling, it will just play them all, regardless of what it’s been downloaded or not. Awful.Took it off my iPhone now.

http://twitter.com/Appledystopia Appledystopia

I like the new Podcasts app, but not as much as Wade… Didn’t make space for it in my dock. I use it every night to listen to the PBS News Hour, as I fall asleep. My initial impressions were that it needs work. After spending more time with it, I feel it needs work. But it has replaced iTunes and Music for me… The pathetic thing is Apple’s lack of decent documentation. They have a little support article that is far from comprehensive. Not even a screen shot. Check out my blog (Appledystopia) for some tips, with screenshots, that will probably help you use this a little better…

http://twitter.com/Appledystopia Appledystopia

Interesting… for all things NPR, I use the NPR app. The iPad version is pretty awesome. You can read text versions. Sometimes I like to multitask and read another story while listening to the 5 minute news cast. That said, NPR is trying to be too hip these days. Well, nothing too new. I prefer the stodgy, painstaking detail of the PBS NewsHour. They just seem to get more experts and dive into stories with more depth.

That said, the PBS NewsHour doesn’t have the hipster music stuff. No post-rock bumper music between segments… It makes it harder to play my NPR drinking game — take a swig of Pabst Blue Ribbon every time you hear hip “post rock” music.

Carl L

Apple’s new Podcast app sucks. No syncing and the controls that limit the number of podcasts don’t work regardless of which one you try to use.

JNelson

how do I go back to using podcasts in ‘music’ ??? I can’t figure out how to LISTEN to all the podcasts (back issues!) I suddenly have on my iPhone4!

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco Wade Roush

JNelson — I don’t think you can. Once you have the Podcasts app, all your podcasts show up there. As far as I know, the only way to get them to show up in Music again is to uninstall Podcasts.

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco Wade Roush

After suffering with Apple’s Podcasts app for more than five months, I’m ready to take back everything nice that I said about it in this June column. It’s sluggish and unresponsive, even on my brand new iPhone 5. I’m gradually switching over to Stitcher. I’ll have more to say on that soon…

Ray

terrible…for some reason it wipes out my is on my Ipod…itunes tells me everything is installed and good, then I look at the ipod touch…and all music is gone from the player. All this is from apple forcing me to use this app, it won’t show podcasts on my ipod even though itunes tells me installed them!

Russell Knight

I like listening to podcast that I place into playlists. This new app has made it impossible to do now. How do I reverse this abortion of an app?

CheshireCatastrophe

Never had an issue finding and downloading podcasts before. I tried this app when it released, and again a little while ago, both times being monumentally disappointing.

I completely disagree with your enthusiasm regarding this app, Wade. If you had trouble directly downloading from iTunes, that was your personal failing, and as a tech writer no less. But I’ve downloaded everything from tech, lifestyle and even hobbyist podcasts with no problem navigating iTunes. In fact, the concern regarding managing your podcasts via your phone is sort of moot as you use the same basic layout on pc and Mac.

Really, you’ve simply segregated two audiences that have potential crossover. If I look up Soundgarden, per se, isn’t it cool that I see some possible podcast interviews under “podcasts” below “albums” and “songs”. This all seems like common sense.

Podcast App

This podcast app is totally unacceptable and the latest update has made it 100% unusable! If you want a story for a column, you should go look at the Podcast app reviews in Itunes and read through them. The big story apparently is that either, Apple has decided to destroy podcast entirely, or has 100% inept developers…There is a big story here either way! Why did they remove podcasts from the music app and force people to use this app that is 100% unworkable? Maybe this is the first sign of the end of Apple? Here is a headline: “An Apple inhouse developed app that received an average score of ONE STAR!!!”